O.......Possom

Let's play a little game. I'll give you 3 clues and you try to guess what I've been up to today.

Clue #1

safety glasses (really cute, pink safety glasses)


Could be anything right? This might help.

Clue #2

Wayne's welding gloves

Hmm.....still not sure?

Clue #3a gopher grabber

Still don't know? No, I wasn't cleaning the toilet. Not washing Wayne's filthy work clothes. Not washing Wayne's back.

I was trying to catch a possom. Yep, I said possom.

Okay, I'll start from the beginning. I put all three of the dogs outside in the afternoon and shortly after our beagle Lincoln started barking profusely. That's really not too out of character for him but it was really loud and he wouldn't shut up and wouldn't come when I called him.

I found him in the bushes in front of the porch. I bent down and saw what I thought was a cat and went to touch it but it ran into the bushes. I came back in the house for a while. The whole time Lincoln's barking, the other two dogs are inside barking as if to say they've got his back. I looked inside the bush and saw what I thought was a baby possom.

I couldn't take it any longer so I called Wayne to see if he had any ideas of what I should do. The only thing he could come up with is to throw a blanket over Lincon to hopefully distract him so I could grab him. I knew that was not going to work. He was literally nose to nose with this stupid possom. Neither of them were giving up. Wayne suggested calling one of our neighbors or to get his bow and arrow to shoot the possom. Are you kidding? I might as well call the vet and 911 and get them on their way, I will for sure shoot myself in the foot or some poor person walking on the road. We were afraid that if I just reached down to grab Lincoln he might bite me 'cuz he was so keyed up.

After consulting with my Dad, I grabbed Lincoln by the tail and moved him backward until I could grab his collar. I got him in the house and Lola and Toby started hovering around him like he just scored the winning touchdown. If they had hands, they would be high-fiving and slapping each other on the butt. Wayne called and I told him I got him. He said "the possom?". I said "No---hell no, who do you think you're talking to?". My Dad asked me the same thing. Then he said "Missy you have to get him out of the yard or Lincoln's gonna go back to that spot every time he goes out. Just grab him by the tail and throw him over the fence." At this point I'm wondering if my Dad fell and hit his head. My response was "if that damn possom had any sense at all he'd leave now that Lincoln's gone." He also asked if I had some kind of pole with a hook on it that I could just grab him with. Oh right, my possom grabbing stick why didn't I think of that.

As it turns out, he doesn't have much common sense. After a little thought and more encouragement from my Dad I decided to try to get it out of the bushes. So I got the above equipment and a long extension pole. My plan was to coax it out of the bushes with the extension pole then grab in with the gopher grabber and throw it over the fence.The welding gloves were in case he bit me, the safety glasses were to protect my eyes....duh! So I poked him (still thinking it's a baby) and he just turned his head and glared at me with his creepy red eyes and it was clear he was not a baby.....he was huge.

At that point I told Mr. Possom that he could have the bush and he could raise his little possom babies in there. In fact, I'll let him have the whole front yard if he promises not to chew me up and spit me out.